Losing weight is no joke especially when you’re in college. But when you’ve been overweight all your life and then become a victim to the “freshman 40,” you start to realize that no matter how much you try to do made-up workouts at the REC center, you just can’t shake the weight off.
But I was able to go from 200 lbs to 180 lbs in six weeks because I joined an amazing gym that also helped me change my diet. While I wasn’t eating junk food every single day, it was obvious that whatever I was eating wasn’t doing it for my body.
Join A Gym Program
I had the luxury to join a 6 week weight loss challenge at an amazing gym, Probodies Elite Washington. Not only did it have a majority of women at the gym, but it focused a lot on weight training and introduced a completely new diet plan to help kickstart my weight loss journey.
In the program, I was introduced to all kinds of supplements that I should be taking from fish oil to fat burners. I also had to attend five weekly one-hour classes where we did a majority of strength-focused workouts that ended with an intense HIIT workout.
A Better You
Most people want to lose weight so they can look better; however, I wanted to do it so I could feel better. For me, one of the worst part of being overweight was constantly feeling heavy while having no energy to do anything about it.
After joining my gym, I started feeling better within the first week of the challenge. Even though I decided to do it at the worst time (during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays) once I got all of the wasteful toxins out of my body, my desires for alcohol and bad foods was no more.
Surround Yourself With A Good Community
At Probodies, I fell in love with a lot of things aside from the effective workouts. The people that went to the gym were people I could relate to — people that wanted to feel better in their skin and do it the right way.
We encouraged each other to push our maximums and never back down. Every time I wanted to fall down in an exasperated sweat, there was always someone behind me telling me that I could do it. And I always did.
I tried to lose weight on my own for years but it never worked. I would have never realized that the answer was in having good people around me who could help me push my limits and hold me accountable in becoming a better, stronger version of myself.
Have Accountability
One thing Probodies taught me was that I couldn’t change my life if I wasn’t accountable for myself. Before Probodies, I was working out on my own and designed my workout plans on a day-to-day basis without knowing how effective these workouts actually were.
After seeing no results and not being able to get myself to go the REC, I knew I had to do something different. Once I made the decision to join a gym and put money into my weight loss, I knew I was serious about turning my life around.
College kids usually have no money and when they do it comes from the three jobs they have to work to pay their bills. So putting money into losing weight at a gym was almost terrifying to me. What if it didn’t work and I would have wasted money that could have gone to food or gas?
But then, I lost 20 lbs. And after losing this weight, I realized how serious I was about my health and fitness journey. I wanted muscles, I wanted to be strong — it wasn’t even about losing weight anymore. I wanted to become healthier and stronger.
Maintain Your Weight Loss
One of the hardest things to do is maintain weight loss after committing yourself to short term challenges. Once the challenge ends, the first thing you want to do is go out and eat a fat bowl of hot and spicy wings.
And that’s fine — in moderation. With maintaining weight loss, it’s all about making small, daily adjustments and compromises. Things like only drinking on the weekends and only having one cheat meal a week will keep you from putting on more weight.
After deciding to lose weight the right way, I felt better and was happy I decided to make that decision as a New Year’s Resolution. I’ll be starting my next challenge on Jan. 14 and I’m so ready to lose another 20 lbs because I’ll feel better in my skin.
If you’re choosing to get fit for your New Year’s Resolution just remember why you made that decision and use it to fuel you through all the really hard times up ahead. The journey does get tough but it’s worth it at the end.
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